It is now common for operating systems to have a shell which provides a graphical user interface (GUI). The shell is a piece of software (either a separate program or component part of the operating system) that provides direct communication between the user and the operating system. The graphical user interface typically provides a graphical icon-oriented and/or menu driven environment for the user to interact with the operating system.
The graphical user interface of many operating system shells is based on a desktop metaphor. More specifically, the graphical user interface is intended to create a graphical environment which simulates working at a desk. These graphical user interfaces typically employ a windowing environment with a desktop.
The windowing environment presents the user with specially delineated areas of the screen called windows, each of which is dedicated to a particular application program, file or document. Each window can act independently, as if it were a virtual display device under control of its particular application program. Windows can typically be resized, moved around the display, and stacked so as to overlay another. In some windowing environments, windows can be minimized to an icon or increased to a full-screen display. Usually, the windows have a top to bottom order in which they are displayed, with top windows at a particular location on the screen overlaying any other window at that same location according to a z-order (an order of the windows along a conceptual z-axis normal to the desktop or display screen). The top-most window has the "focus" and accepts the user's input. The user can switch other windows to the top (and thereby change the z-order) by clicking on the window with a mouse or other pointer device, or by inputting certain key combinations (e.g., the "alt+esc" or "alt+tab" keystrokes on a Microsoft Windows.RTM. equipped computer). This allows the user to work with multiple application programs, files and documents in a similar manner as physically working with multiple paper documents and items which can be arbitrarily stacked or arranged on an actual desk.
The desktop of the graphical user interface is a screen display containing icons representing programs, files and resources available to the user. As such, the desktop acts as a launching point for running application programs, opening documents or files, and initiating operating system services. In accordance with the desktop metaphor, the desktop simulates the top of an actual desk on which various work items are made available to the office worker. The desktop in some graphical user interfaces thus includes icons representing work resources found on a real desk, such as a file cabinet, telephone, wastebasket, and scratchpad. The icons can be activated by the user to launch application programs that act as computer equivalents of the actual work resource. In typical graphical user interfaces, the desktop always remains as a full-screen background display relative to the windowing environment. In other words, the desktop cannot be moved or resized, and all visible windows of the windowing environment overlay the desktop as would paper documents, files, and other items on top of an actual desk. The desktop thus effectively provides a graphical work surface underlying the windowing environment.
One example of a graphical user interface having a desktop and a windowing environment is that provided by the shell of the Microsoft Windows.RTM. 95 operating system. As a default, the desktop in this graphical user interface includes a "my computer" icon, a "network neighborhood" icon, and a "recycle bin" icon against a solid color background, and also includes a task bar along a bottom edge of the screen with a "start" button for menu-driven interaction. Application programs are launched from the desktop by clicking on an icon or selecting from a menu, and presented in a re-sizeable and moveable window among other application windows overlaying the desktop in a z-order.
The Windows.RTM. 95 graphical user interface provides many opportunities to enhance or customize its appearance and operation according to a users preferences. For example, it is possible to add additional icons onto the desktop to represent other application programs, documents, files, and resources. The start menu also can be customized to include additional items, such as for launching particular applications, and opening documents or files. A graphic image can be selected as a background of the desktop (called "wallpaper") in place of the default solid color background. Sounds can be associated with various activities such as mouse operations (e.g., single click and double click activations), and window operations (e.g., opening and closing an application window). The mouse pointer and other icons can be animated.
In addition to these numerous individual customizations, the Windows.RTM. 95 graphical user interface also can be customized with themed enhancements. More specifically, Microsoft distributes an add-on product for the Microsoft Windows.RTM. 95 operating system, called the Microsoft Windows.RTM. 95 Plus Pack, which includes packaged groups of theme-related multi-media enhancements (called "themes") for the Windows.RTM. 95 graphical user interface. Each theme includes a group of resources which alter the appearance and feel of the Windows.RTM. 95 graphical user interface. These resources include substitute icons, mouse pointer graphics and animations, sounds, a wallpaper, and a screen saver which all relate to a title of the theme. The plus pack, for example, includes themes entitled, "Nature," "Leonardo Da Vinci," "Mystery," "Science," and "Sports," among others.
A particular theme is selected and applied by the user to the graphical user interface using a themes applet which the plus pack installs into the Windows.RTM. 95 control panel (an application program group which includes small application programs or applets that control various aspects of the operating system). The themes applet provides a dialog window which presents a list of available themes and has controls which a user can activate to select a theme, preview a selected theme and apply the selected theme to the graphical user interface. When applied to the graphical user interface, the applied theme changes the desktop's wallpaper, the graphics of the "my computer," "network neighborhood" and "recycle bin" icons, the screen saver, the graphic and animation of the mouse pointer and other user interface elements using the resources packaged within the theme. As a result, the Windows.RTM. 95 graphical user interface has an appearance and feel which is consistent with the theme's title or topic. When the Leonardo Da Vinci theme is applied to the Windows.RTM. 95 graphical user interface for example, the theme changes the wallpaper to a graphic which includes the artist's drawings, changes the mouse pointer to an animated paint brush and palette, and changes other elements to like enhancements related to and consistent with a Leonardo Da Vinci motif.
A limitation of these Windows.RTM. 95 themes is that they package a static set of enhancements to the graphical user interface. Once a theme is applied to the graphical user interface, the enhancements added by the theme to the graphical user interface remain the same. More specifically, the wallpaper, the icons, the mouse pointer graphic and animations, the screen saver and other enhancements added by the theme to the graphical user interface remain unchanged, at least until the user chooses to apply a new individual customization or another theme. As a result, the theme only provides a novel appearance to the graphical user interface when it is first applied, and consequently often is not a source of continuing interest to the user.
Another limitation to Windows.RTM. 95 themes is that they have little capacity to convey related factual information. The themes can provide only specific types of enhancements which suggest the topic of the themes, such as wallpaper, icons, animations, screen savers, and the like, but do not convey much factual information. The Leonardo Da Vinci theme, for example, adds many multi-media enhancements to the graphical user interface which suggest associations with Leonardo Da Vinci, such as the artists drawings depicted in that themes wallpaper and the animated mouse pointer depicting a paint brush and artist palette. However, the enhancements provided by the Leonardo Da Vinci theme are not able to convey much factual information about the man or his achievements. Also, since the theme's resources are static and committed at the time the resources are packaged into the theme, any information conveyed may lose timeliness. Thus, this static nature of the theme's resources is not conducive to conveying time sensitive information about the theme's topic.
The present invention embodies methods and apparatus to provide themed multi-media enhancements to the graphical user interface of a computer's operating system which overcomes these and other limitations of the prior art. According to a first aspect, the invention provides themed enhancements to the graphical user interface of a computer (the "theme-enhanced computer") which are repeatedly updated. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, an update service performs recurring updates to the themed enhancements by downloading updating resources from a server computer on a network, such as the Internet, connected to the theme-enhanced computer. The update service automatically performs the updating at scheduled intervals, at times that the user is otherwise connected to the network, or on other bases. A provider of the themed enhancements may continually change the updating resources residing on the server so as to make new enhancements which are consistent with the theme continually available to the theme-enhanced computer. For example, enhancements based on a Leonardo Da Vinci theme can provide wallpaper which one week is an image from Da Vinci's engineering drawings, and a next week is updated to one of Da Vinci's art images. Because the themed enhancements are recurringly updated, the themed enhancements are more likely to retain the user's interest, as well as the timeliness of their information content.
According to another aspect of the invention, the themed enhancements are applied to an operating system graphical user interface in which various displays in the graphical user interface, such as the desktop and views of file system folders, are generated as hypertext pages. The themed enhancements can include templates and style sheets used in generating the hypertext pages of the graphical user interface. With the templates, the themed enhancements can add text, hyperlinks, images, and other multi-media resources consistent with the theme that can better convey factual information relating to the theme's topic. For example, the text of a hypertext page used for a display in the graphical user interface can state factual information relating to the theme, while hypertext links on the page provide access to additional supplemental pages of information on the theme. The style sheets can better control formatting of multi-media resources in a display.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, the themed enhancements add a theme channel to a graphical user interface which includes a display pane or window for playing multi-media resources retrieved from servers on a computer network, such as from sites on the Internet. The graphical user interface may, for example, play the multi-media resources in a scrolling ticker display, a sequential or slide show style display, or other display. The theme channel is associated with a theme provider server on the computer network. When the theme channel is selected, the graphical user interface retrieves and plays multi-media resources from the theme provider server. The themed enhancements are thus able to enhance the graphical user interface of a computer with theme-consistent, dynamically playing multi-media resources which, in effect, constitutes a new form of broadcast media.
According to a further aspect of the invention, the themed enhancements add access to supplemental multi-media resources to the graphical user interface. In one embodiment of the invention, a drop down list control is added to a display in the graphical user interface, such as a view of a file system folder, for providing access to the supplemental multi-media resources.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be made apparent from the following detailed description of an illustrated embodiment which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.